My Top 6 Social Media Pet Peeves

Since I’ve started blogging, I’ve made a commitment to myself to post at least three times a week. I’ve been pretty good at sticking to my goal but I’ll admit, on some days, it’s hard to think of something to write about. Not today. Today, the topic hit me while I was sitting down at the computer first thing this morning to check on some accounts. As part of my routine, I took a look at my Twitter account and saw that I had several new followers. Not wanting to alienate anyone by forgetting to acknowledge them, I checked out who the new followers were. Eggs. Eggs with no bios. I knew right then that my topic for today was Social Media Pet Peeves.

We all have things in life that bug us. Nails on a blackboard, people who are late or people who crack their gum. The social media arena is no different. While most of us try to follow the simple rules of common courtesy and etiquette, there will always be those who, like in the offline world, are loutish, annoying and just not fun to be around. Here are the top 6 things that drive me nuts online:

No picture or bio on Twitter: Social media, by nature, is about connecting with other people, for friendship, business or to pass time. If you’re going to set up an account and actively tweet and follow people, why on earth would you not put up a picture and bio to let others know who they’re interacting with. It still completely baffles me when I see a bio-less egg with 1000’s of followers. I mean, Really??

Auto DM: Whoever thought up this marketing tactic should be seriously examined. I don’t know about you but I hate getting those automatic messages in my inbox telling me I can make millions by following this link. These messages are completely impersonal (thanking me for following you with an auto DM? Not cool). I’d rather not receive anything than a promotional message or a canned message telling me how excited you are that I’m following you.

Spammy @ or #FF tweets: I’m a firm believer in Social Media Karma. I always thank people (personally) for following and for mentioning me online. I think #FollowFriday is a great idea to thank people you’ve interacted with during the week and to let others know about really interesting and helpful people to follow. However, I do find it annoying (and puzzling) when people I’ve had no contact with at all — ever, include my name in a @ list that keeps going around and around. Especially when the instigator isn’t even following me in the first place.

No contact information: Last week, I retweeted one of Chris Brogan’s tweets that read: “Just didn’t give someone business because their G+ page didn’t have contact information.” I do find it very frustrating when someone doesn’t include at least an e-mail address on their website. One of the main reason we are all online is to connect. How are we supposed to do that if I can’t get in touch with you? No info, no new business. It’s as simple as that.

Links with great titles that don’t take you where you want to go: How often have you read a really catchy blog or link title, whether on twitter, G+ or Facebook and when you click through, it isn’t to the article that you really wanted to read but it’s to a web or promotional page? While I always like to give people the benefit of the doubt, I will unfollow for repeat offenses.

Virtual Chain letters: How many times did you freak out as a kid when you got a chain letter in the mail? Nowadays, the online versions are all too commonplace. I’m here to tell you now: You will not be cursed forever, you will not have 99 years of bad luck, you did not win the Ugandan lottery, your mom will not die in 4 hours and there is NO WAY that sending an e-mail to 10 people will make an image or video appear. So before you consider whether or not to pass a chain e-mail on to me, take this advice and please don’t!

Now that I have that out of my system, I’m open to hearing what your pet peeves are so come on and share your favourites!

8 responses to “My Top 6 Social Media Pet Peeves”

Lately I feel like most of my new Twitter followers are spammers (No bio Eggs) hoping I’ll follow them back. It’s really disheartening, after all, I feel like I’m working to put out helpful or interesting content.

Also, to your 4th bullet point… I’ve been noticing an increase of bridge pages. I see a link to an article I’m interested in and it takes me to a page with a snippet of the article. I have to click again to get to the real article on another site. Annoying.

Great points! These are all pet peeves of mine as well. Another is completely bland bios that give no sense of what a person is like. It’s SOCIAL media – not business card exchanges. You’re an advisor or SEM or whatever – great – but what do you do when you’re not tied to the computer?

You’re right, Courtney. While I think that some bios can be TMI, a bio with some personal info can help us feel more comfortable engaging because then we feel at least some sort of connection. With all these great comments and additions, I may have to start a pet peeve list part 2!

If someone fills my screen with their tweets, like rapid fire… I drop them. I follow enough people for info that I don’t want just one person to fill my screen. They need to spread them out a bit – harsh I know… but it makes me feel like I am still in control LOL.

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Melissa Reyes
Mom, Twitter addict, full-time social media manager and the owner of Social Amateur, a consulting company focused on helping small businesses navigate the world of social media marketing.